Doubt refines Faith
Do not be afraid to doubt and question your faith
Faith by definition is the belief in what cannot be known. So yes, I have had doubts at different times in my faith journey. I would posit that those who have not doubted and questioned their faith, have missed the opportunity to deepen their faith.
There are times when different Faith traditions, mine included, try to protect their adherents against “dangerous and false teaching” by banning certain books or ideas. I find that difficult to understand or accept. Anyone who is a seeker of the truth will have to face challenges and deal with competing and contradictory ideas. I do believe God created us with the ability to reason so we may explore and question. Although our reasoning is only capable of accessing a fraction of the mystery of God, it is honest questioning and discernment, working together with Faith and prayer, that leads us closer to our understanding of God. Whenever we reach an impasse, when reason by its very limited nature is unable to traverse further, Faith helps us “touch the face” of what cannot be reasonably known.
I believe God has revealed “Himself” to many traditions and the traditions in turn have used their culture, history, context and symbols to understand, interpret and teach. The teachings of the different traditions are all meant to help their adherents walk closer with God.
Problems arise when one or more traditions claim to be the one and true mouthpiece of God. This belittles God’s all-embracing and inclusive Love. I have been fortunate to grow up and live among many faith traditions. I have discovered that there is a common core to all traditions that transcend their different teachings. They all teach some form of the Golden Rule — “Do unto others as you would have done unto you,” or, “Do not do unto others what you do not wish done unto you.” No matter what the different traditions may teach, Love and Compassion are at their core. Despite this common core, there have been wars and mass killings done in the name of religion. This occurs when the tenets of different religions, viewed exclusively and outside of Love, are interpreted and used to blindly lead the unthinking.
My Faith is important to me. It helps me to know myself in relation to God and creation. I also believe it is through God’s grace (goodness) that I can be good. Only God is truly good and only good can propagate goodness. Faith is both communal and personal. If we are becoming more loving and compassionate as a result of our Faith, Faith is doing what it was meant to do — bring us closer to Truth and God. If our Faith is causing us to harm or cause pain to others, we should certainly question the teachings causing those actions.
What if Love is truly all there is? What if Love is the name of God and Love is the elemental DNA of creation? What if our purpose is to discover and experience Love? What if we are all related to Love, have Love within us and are living in Love? It would then follow that to go against Love in any way is to disrupt something foundational and elemental in ourselves, in others and in creation.
Through my doubts, my Faith has evolved to the mystery that we are all in a primal relationship with God who is Love, and only when we can fully accept and live this Truth will we be truly free. Free to live as one with our fellow human beings and the whole of creation.
We have come to know and have believed the Love which God has for us. God is Love, and the one who remains in Love remains in God, and God remains in him. — 1 John 4:16
Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire. ― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin